


Metamorphoses

by themidgardiansongstress



Series: Strange Lovers [2]
Category: Game Grumps, Marvel Cinematic Universe, True Blood
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-18
Updated: 2018-03-21
Packaged: 2019-01-19 01:31:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12400335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themidgardiansongstress/pseuds/themidgardiansongstress
Summary: In which Arin and Suzy are going through some drastic changes. NOTE: Chapter 6 is up, but for some reason AO3 isn't showing it on the summary, it's there after you click through to the fic.





	1. Strange Magic

**Author's Note:**

> To be read after Strange Lovers.

Suzy noticed the bruises first. Ani had her hair swept up into a bun on her head, and she was stretching. “Ani?”

Ani paused, turning back to Suzy. “What?”

“Are you okay? You’ve got a-” 

Ani’s hand immediately went to her neck as she looked away. “I got it in my basement.” Her tone indicated a finality to what she was saying, making it clear that she did not want to discuss it any more. 

\---

The drive over to the grump space was largely silent. When they got there, Ani was largely lethargic, though she still showed enough energy to get her work done. As she edited, her eyes blurred and she rubbed her eyes, sighing heavily.

Arin came by, setting a cup of coffee on her desk. Ani glanced down at the cup as Arin crossed his legs to sit next to her. “You seemed tired.” He admitted, smiling wanly at her. 

“Thanks.” She sighed, taking the coffee. She tipped it back into her mouth, downing the boiling coffee like a shot. Her veins glowed red like an ember for a moment, and then she simply set the empty cup back down. “Everything that’s happened…”

“Dan and Mark have both recovered. Dan’s been a little tired, but he’s better.” Arin admitted. 

She nodded. “Magic is...a blessing and a curse. If I didn’t have these powers, Dan and Mark wouldn’t have been in danger.”

“But if you didn’t have magic, you wouldn’t have met any of us.” He replied.

“Still.” She looked up. “I wouldn’t have been better off without my magic. I’d still be stressed as shit.” She sighed. 

“How do you know that?” He asked. 

She shrugged. “Side visions.”

\---

Arin looked down at his hands, taking a pause from his work. His hands tingled like tey had fallen asleep, but he didn’t quite feel that painful. It was nice, like dipping his hands into warm water, like dipping his hands into dry rice. 

He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath as he clenched his hands into fists. He let himself sink into the feeling radiating from his hands, let it encapsulate his whole being. He felt it concentrate around his head. 

Then water splashed against the back of his head. 

“Arin!” 

Arin sprang up out of his chair, tossing off his soaking wet hoodie. “Ross! What the fuck?!”

“Arin, your hair was on fire, did you not feel that?” Ross asked Arin, holding an empty pitcher of water in his hands.

Arin looked around at the eyes that were on him. Everyone in the office had stopped to watch the exchange. Arin, as he was want to do in matters that were unexplained, traced his gaze to Ani.

She looked at him, and pointed briefly to an empty recording room. 

\---

Arin paced in the recording room. Ani opened the door, looking at him, trying to gauge what she sensed in his energy. 

“Ani, what’s happening to me?” He whispered, taking her hands.

Ani furrowed her brow, looking down at his hands in hers. Thinking, she looked up and pressed her hand onto his throat, pushing a trail of dotted magic into him. Fire bloomed along his arms, making Arin jolt back. 

“When we exorcised Dan and Mark, our energy mixed together. I think my magic...awakened something in you.” She explained calmly. Too calmly. Her even tone raked at Arin’s nerves, but he knew it wasn’t her fault.

“So, I have magic now?”

“You’ve always had magic. Most humans do.” She replied. Arin sat on the nearby couch, leaving Ani to stand next to him. 

“Lucky me, I’m the one human to fall for a magic person.” He sighed.

Ani stared at him, and turned away. “We don’t have to be dating. I can leave if you want me to.” 

“No, Ani, I didn’t me-” 

“You don’t want magic? Fine. You don’t have to have it.” She took his hand, overloading his magic with hers in anger. 

In a flash of sparks, the room filled with smoke and fog, blinding Ani for a moment.

  
  


 


	2. Smoke Dreams, Smoke Screens, Illusions

Ani smelled it before she could see it. Spiced scents rose on the wind, filling her mind. Cinnamon, vanilla, myrrh, rosemary, thyme, mint, cumin, turmeric, a millioni, dizzying spices overwhelming her mind. 

“You look weary, traveler.” A lilting, yet familiar voice sounded behind her. Ani turned to look at where the voice had come from. What she saw was more intriguing, and a little alluring. But she had to keep her head.

Arin was lounged across a pile of sumptuously embroidered pillows. He wore silken robes that could barely be called clothing, body decorated in  gold and rose gold body jewelry, delicate chains criss crossing his chest, and interestingly, his thighs.

He rose from the pillows, and Ani noticed the makeup her wore. Lines of gold and rose gold eyeliner lined his eyelids, lips painted in a dusting of gold. He glittered like a star, and it shocked Ani, and yet, it seemed perfectly natural on him.

His hand rose to meet her face, and she felt dwarfed by him, the air of hazy seduction surrounding him making him even more enormous in her mind.

The thin chains connected to various rings he wore glinted as he brushed the back of his hand against her cheek. “Rest here. It’s been some time since I’ve met with a traveler as lovely as you.” His eyes were half lidded, and it stoked a wild desire that she thought had long been hidden. 

She blinked rapidly. “Arin, it-it’s me, it’s Ani.” 

“Ani…” He mused. “That’s not your full name, is it?”

She shook her head. “It’s...It’s Anicalandra. Anicalandra Demitricolus.” She mumbled. Arin stepped back, taking her hand. He led her to the pile of pillows he’d been lying down on. 

“A lovely name,” He mused, gentle hands resting on her shoulders and pushing her back.

Without question, distressingly enough, Ani laid back on the pillows, lulled into a false sense of security. 

Arin moved away, and Ani just stared up into the ceiling of the tent-multicolored fabric glinting with golden thread winking in her eyes. Arin returned to her. “Anicalandra-do you know why I have brought you here?” He asked, tilting his head down at her. 

She blinked up at him. “Arin, this isn’t you, you’re…” 

“You have three questions to answer for,” He poured something into a goblet, holding it in his hands. “And seven days to answer them.” 

“Questions? Then ask them.” 

He shook his head. “Not yet, you must answer them in order. In due time.” He pulled her to sit up slightly, resting her head on his lap. 

He tilted her head back, tipping the goblet into her mouth, a strange, silvery liquid pouring into her mouth. She would have choked on it, but it was smooth and terrifying. 

It tasted like magic and something more, something she no longer wanted to think of. 

He pulled the goblet away when it was no longer full, using his thumb and forefinger to tilt her head up towards him. His thumb skirted across her bottom lip, and she shuddered. 

“When you see me next, you must answer me this.” He leaned in, millimeters from her lips, and whispered the question to her.

His lips barely brushed hers, and darkness enveloped her

\---

Ani woke with a start, coughing slightly. “Oh, good.” Dan sighed. 

Ani looked up at him. “How long was I-”  
“Not long, like half an hour.” He looked back at the couch. Arin was staring at the ceiling, blinking slowly. He looked back down at Ani.

“What was that?” He asked. “What was…” 

“Your magic. Unbridled.” Ani replied sitting up. 

“Arin has magic?” Dan whispered. 

“In a sense.” Ani replied. 

“How are you feeling after that uh…”

“I’m fine. I feel like I have a fever, but it’s not a cold.” He began. 

Ani picked up her finished plate, moving to drop it off in the sink. “That’s how magic feels. When you’re not born with the abilities at full power, then…” 

“Can you tell me more about it later tonight?” Arin asked. 

“Sure.”

\---

“The main question to consider now is what you want to use your powers for. Or at least, what they do.” Ani began, taking Arin’s hands. They were standing in the grump space after everyone had gone home, Ani decided to help Arin deal with his magic. 

Arin felt resigned, like he was burdened with a skill that he never wanted. But he tried not to let it bother him. “I make fire. So it follow that I can control it, yeah?”

She nodded, looking at his hands. “I pushed my magic onto yours. Now you reverse that process and push your magic into mine.” She closed her eyes as she held his hands.

Arin sighed and nodded, closing his eyes as well. His fire raced down his arms, veins glowing like embers. The force of his magic absorbed his anger, his lingering, subconscious resentment at Ani for making him realize his power. 

His magic made her stumble back as her sleeves caught fire. Ani cried out in horror as her skin began to burn. Arin looked at her, eyes widening as she frantically took off her jacket, suffering only some minor burns on her arms and chest. She stared up at him, backing away from Arin after stamping the fire out of her jacket. 

“Ani, wait.” Arin began as she stepped back from him. Her burns stood out against his sight like lightning across the sky. She shivered, closing her eyes, and Arin crouched down, reaching out to her. As she trembled, strange, silver marks flowered up along her burns, brancing out along the veins in her arms. She looked up at Arin, coughing. 

“Don’t touch me.” She spat, looking away. “I don’t want you to keep hurting me.”

\---

Ani sat in the tub, hot water steaming up around her as Suzy spread the ointment on Ani’s burns. Ani hugged her knees to her chest, blinking slowly as she looked down. “I had no idea, Ani.” Suzy murmured when she was done.

“I didn’t either. I...didn’t think his magic would be that strong already.” She mumbled. Ani grabbed a towel and stood up, drying herself off. Suzy wrapped thin strips of frayed cotton around her arms, keeping the ointment from spreading off.

“I’ve been with Arin for over a decade. He wouldn’t hurt you on purpose.”

“I know.”

“Then why-”

“It’s not me he’s angry with. It’s my magic. He...would rather not have it at all, but denying his own power will just make him miserable. If he keeps it locked in, he’ll just...explode with it.” 

“But…”

“You might be the next one he burns. You're the closest one to him, and you’re standing too close to the fire.”

\---

Ani walked into grump space, ignoring the slight chill in the air. She had taken off the bandages earlier that morning. She looked like she stepped right out of a mad max movie, wearing a flimsy outfit made of white, flowing fabric that put her worst scars prominent to anyone who could see her. 

Arin had a pained expression on his face, had held it there since he saw how Ani had dressed that morning. Suzy, Arin and Ani got to work, but that nagging feeling that he was the lowest of lows egged at him all day, affected the way he recorded with Dan, but Dan said nothing, knowing that whatever he said wouldn’t help.

Ani avoided Arin all day. Whenever he turned in footage for her to edit, she merely nodded and mumbled thanks to him, avoiding his eyes. She would scratch at her burns every so often, and the action made Arin’s stomach drop every time. He felt more and more like a monster every minute. 

\---

“Ani, please just talk to me.” He knelt next to her desk, the low table that she sat at like a japanese dinner table. 

She stared at him, her eyes challenging him to be a better man. “Ani, I’m sorry, I just, I can’t keep doing this. I know you were just trying to help, and it was wrong for me to hurt you just…” He took her hands, lowering his head. “I can’t do it. I want to learn. I want you-I need you to teach me how to take away this power.”

Ani said nothing, but stood, leading Arin to a nearby table. She murmured a few words, and the tabletop began glowing with energy. “Lay down. Removing your magic will be incredibly painful. If it can be removed.”

Arin swallowed nervously, but kicked his shoes off and laid down on the table. The light caught Brian’s eyes, and he took off his headphones, setting his keyboard aside. As Arin laid down, dots of light formed in the image of Arin above his body. Internally, small, bright orange lights moved along the inside of his body, buzzing around his brain and spinal cord. “Is that a quantum field generator?” Brian asked, walked up beside the table. 

“In a sense, yeah. But based in magic, not science. Not necessarily.” Ani replied, manipulating a floating wheel in the lights. 

“What was that Arthur C. Clarke quote?” Brian asked. 

“The one about magic and science?” She asked, pausing. “Arin…”

“What?” He asked. 

“Your magic...it cannot be removed now without also removing your emotions.” She sighed, stepping back as the table deactivated. Arin sat up, staring at her feet. “I can do it, if you truly want-”

“No.” Arin shook his head. “I changed my mind. I want to control this.” 

“Arin, are you sure?” Ani asked. 

“I have this power. I can’t get rid of it without losing myself. The only thing left is to learn how to use it without hurting you. Or anyone else.”

Ani nodded. “Then we work. You and I will wake up at five in the morning, everyday, before work, and we will work. You either keep up or fall behind. You have fire magic, the least patient of any elemental magic. This will be hard, this will test you more than any workout has ever tested you.” 

Arin nodded, swallowing nervously. “Okay. I’m ready to start whenever.”  
“Good. Meet me here tomorrow morning. Five am sharp.”


	3. Suzy the Deathless

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "darling dear, what have you done?   
> your hands and face are smeared with blood."  
> -The Tain, The Decemberists

Suzy could hear the sound of dripping water and quiet whimpers echoing around her in the darkness. Moving forward, the sound of music could be heard as well. The sight she found chilled her to the bone, more so than the air around her. 

Ani was on the ground, curled up around herself, clutching an old mp3 in her hands. Miraculously, it was still  playing music, and Suzy recognized the song as one of those old indie songs she couldn’t escape on the radio so many years ago. 

Her heart ached at the sight of the weakened, shivering Ani on the floor. She reached out to her, only to be interrupted by the doors to the warehouse being thrown open, light blinding her entirely. 

\---

Suzy woke with a sharp start, gasping. “Suze!” Arin crouched down next to the side of the bed, brushing a strand of hair out of his face. “Are you okay?”  
“Yeah, just a little nightmare.” She glanced at the alarm clock. “Ani’s being merciful today, huh?”

“Yeah. Well, I’ve been getting better, but she wanted me to be rested for today. Something about meditation.”

\---

Arin sat in the center of the grump space, eyes closed. Ani watched him from the side intently, a row of her glowing magic dots extending from the fingers of her left hand to Arin’s shoulders. In her right hand, Ani held a ball of self contained fire, looking at it every so often before her gaze snapped back to Arin.

“He’s not gonna do it,” Brian whispered from his desk a few feet away. “He’s been training with her for three months.”

“Believe in something, man.” Dan murmured, chewing on the end of his pen as he watched Arin try to focus himself. 

Just as he did so, a circlet of fire bloomed on Arin’s head, spinning and pinwheeling like spinning sparklers. Sparks and ashes tumbled down his shoulders, dripping fire onto his skin, his clothes, the blaze tracing the lines and fibers of his muscles until he was entirely composed of fire itself. 

Arin stood, a towering column of flame. He took a tentative step forward, and turned towards Ani. They reached out in order to clasp their hands together, but Arin hesitated. It’d been a full month since he’d burned Ani, and in that time, he hadn’t even come close to thinking about touching her. 

In truth, she hadn’t missed Arin’s touch-not that his touch was unworthy of her attentions. She had other partners that could satisfy any physical needs she might have had. Plus, she was a fully grown woman. 

Arin and Ani clasped their hands together-and his fire did not burn her. He wrapped her in a fiery hug, and she did not burn. 

\--- 

“That’s awesome, Arin!” Suzy beamed at her phone as she pulled the car to a stop at a four way red light. The singer on radio crooned quietly, tuned to a soft indie station. The road beneath the car was uncharacteristically slick, rain pouring down over LA like a blanket, like a memory. The wipers swept rain off the windshield in time with the song. 

“He’s gotten pretty far in a month. I mean, as far as being proud of him, I’m just-” Ani replied as she adjusted the phone on Suzy’s dashboard. She smiled vaguely. “I’m really proud of you, Arin.”

Arin was beside himself with joy-Suzy could hear it in his voice. “It’s so fuckin cool, Suze, you have no idea.” 

Suzy eased forward as the light turned green. The song on the radio changed, and she felt a chill run through it when she recognized it-the song from her dream; the dream where she’d seen Ani weak and shaky. She shook the creeping anxiety that the song brought on. “I’m proud of you Arin, I really am, I know that you-” A single solitary truck, skidding on the slick pavement of the road slammed into the side of Suzys’ car. 

\---

Arin froze at the sound of the shattering glass and screeching metal over his phone-and then the line went dead.

\---

Ani coughed, spitting out a tooth that had been knocked loose from the crash. She felt a sharp pain deep within her chest. She knew instinctively that she had at least one broken rib, but it could wait. She tried to her bearings, reaching to the side and swiveling her head around to look for Suzy. 

Dread began percolating in the pit of her stomach when she realized that Suzy was no longer in the driverseat. She looked forward and saw Suzy’s body illuminated in a beam of moonlight as the clouds parted. 

With a short grunt, Ani ripped the seat belt off of herself, and practically ripped the car door off of its hinges in order to frantically get out of the car. She fell to her knees next to Suzy and shook, reaching out to her.

“Suzy..” Ani quickly assessed Suzy’s condition, but the shard of glass protruding from Suzy’s back couldn’t spell anything but fatal. 

Ani looked up at the moon, looking for guidance, an answer, something. The words Arin had asked her so long ago, in that tent, where she’d drunk that strange liquid echoed in her mind. The first question he had asked her then. 

She looked down at Suzy, and carefully gripped the sharp edge of the glass. The material dug into her skin, and the golden blood that flowed through her veins bloomed on her hand. 

\---

Arin snapped to attention when he heard a knock at the door. Mere minutes had passed since his call with Suzy and Ani had gone dead, and he was still shocked into paralysis. 

The door swung open, and Ani stood there like so many a gothic romance heroine. He black hair was plastered to her face and neck, a thin line of red blood dripping from the corner of her mouth. She held Suzy in her arms, a thin trail of Ani’s golden blood dripping from the corner of her mouth. 

Arin saw the distinct puncture wounds of a vampire’s bite on Suzy’s neck, and in his paralyzed mind, he still had the cognition to put two and two together. 


	4. Two Becomings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Arin and Ani deal with the consequences of what Ani did in the last chapter. Featuring-an excursion to New Orleans!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was very late, but I finally got back into a rhythm with this.

**New Orleans, Louisiana, Seven Years Ago**

Eric and Godric walked between the warehouses, following the faint sound of music coming from behind one of the steel doors. “What are we doing here, Eric?” Godric asked the viking wearily.

“Godric, it’s something different. Do you smell that blood? Like fairy, and yet…” And yet the smell was haunted by a lingering bitterness that Eric had never encountered either.

They came to the source of the song, the source of the blood. Eric stared at the stain of blood leading into the warehouse from under the door. It glittered like gold in the light of the full moon above them. 

\---

**Los Angeles, California, Present Day**

Ani sat back, watching Suzy breathing evenly. She closed her eyes again, shaking her head rapidly. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.” 

“Ani-is she-” Arin asked quietly, nodding towards Suzy’s body.

“She will be it’s just, fuck I didn’t think this through.” Ani muttered. 

“Ani, you saved her life, I mean…” Arin began, trailing off when he saw the paleness apparent in Suzy’s face. 

Ani though for a second, looking at Arin. “I’m a vampire for at least three nights out of the month-on the full moon,” She stood up pacing slowly. “When I was with Loki, and I turned him, we switched off. He was a vampire for most of the month except for on the full moon. We fed off of each other.”

Arin wrung his hands together. “So does that mean that Suzy…”

“Maybe. Maybe. But Loki was a god. Suzy is human. This might be a permanent change.”

\---

**New Orleans, Louisiana.**

Eric and Godric took turns draining what was left in the young woman, Godric holding Eric at bay for the time being. 

“What happened to this woman?” Eric wondered aloud as she drank from a small gash in his wrist. 

“She’s been tortured.” Godric commented. “However, whoever did this to her wasn’t smart enough to hide her body.”

Eric nodded, looking down at the young woman. He hoisted her up into her arms, the fragile young woman crying out weakly. “Should she have yours, or mine?”

“Yours, Eric. I don’t want to leave behind yet another painful legacy.” Godric monotonously explained.

Eric arched a brow at that, but carefully extracted one of the young woman’s earrings. Thankfully not made of silver, he stabbed the point into his neck, pulling it out and holding the young woman’s mouth to his wound. As she began to drink, Godric rummaged around the warehouse for her belongings. 

“Anicalandra.” He called out, holding a small white rectangle in his hands. 

“What?” Eric replied. 

“Her name, if this device is to be believed.” Godric said.

Eric blinked, slightly off put by her name. It was uncommon to be sure, and he was rarely surprised nowadays.

\---

**Los Angeles**

Ani sat at the couch in the grumpspace, staring at Suzy. She was statue still, the intensity unnerving Arin. “Ani.”

She started, taking in a sharp breath. “Yes?”

“How long does this take?”

She took a minute. “Three days for me. But I was turned by a different strain of vampirism.”

Arin bit his lip. “How long did it take for Loki?” 

She bit her lip. “A night. A couple hours. It was like waiting for a fever to break.” She stood up, moving to Suzy’s side, picking up her pale hand. As she bent her head down, Arin took note of the bruises littering the back of Ani’s neck. 

“Ani.” He murmured, concern lacing his voice. He gently traced a bruise hear her hairline. “Ani, what is this?”

\---

**New Orleans**

Eric set the shovel down, looking up at Godric. The short vampire held Ani out to Eric, and Eric moved to lower the young woman down on the ground.

Eric hopped out of the hole in the ground, moving to fill the temporary grave. “This feels gruesome, somehow.”

“I agree. But she needs time, rest.” He dropped a pile of dirt into the grave.

And it began floating back up to meet him. 

Godric and Eric exchanged a strange look peering down into the grave. Ani floated back up out of the grave, hovering before them for a moment. 

Eric’s eyes widened, staring at the now floating young woman. “What are you?” He whispered.

\---

**Los Angeles**

Ani closed her eyes. “I’ve been…” She looked back at him. “I’ve been undertaking retribution.”

Arin stared at her. “What?” 

She sighed, moving to her duffel bag. She unzipped it, and handed him a small key. The key was made out of black onyx, with a small ruby set in the handle. “This isn’t how I thought it would happen. I thought you would happen upon it, like Ivan Tsarevitch. But no, this is better.” She began speaking rotely, the way that scared Arin. She spoke loftily, the way she did when she was trying to distance herself from what was happening. 

“Ani, what am I going to find with this?”

“The truth.”

\---

Arin approached the door timidly, his hand shaking as he held the key in his hands. He felt the evil rolling from the room, chilling him to the bone. He turned the key in the lock, the door opening slowly. 

He peered in, spying two shadowy figures. The horns, distinctive. The black suit easily recognizable. He saw the two unfamiliar faces of one of his closest friends turn towards him. Then they were black shadows, rushing past him and out of Anicalandra’s library. 


	5. A Promise and A Cur(s)e

Arin thundered up the stairs, cursing his curiosity harshly. When he reemerged back into the Grumpspace, he was greeted by a startling sight.

Ani’s arm was stretched over Suzy’s form, a futile attempt to protect her from the two demons in their midst. “Begone! I’m done with the both of you!”

They merely stared at Anicalandra, looking back and forth between Ani and Suzy. “You’ve made a grave mistake doing this.” Darkiplier murmured.

The two morphed back into shadows, funneling forward to shoot out of the women, into the dark of the night.

Ani took a deep breath, looking back to Suzy. She was safe, her face taking on the appearance of someone sleeping peacefully. “Now we just have to wait it out. We should take her back to your guys’s apartment.”

Arin moved to help Ani lift Suzy, still somewhat shaken by what he’d seen.

\---

“What did they mean?” He asked softly as he lay across the bed from Ani. They were all dressed for sleep, Suzy dozing peacefully in between them, getting colder by the minute. “About the mistake you made?”

Ani looked away before training her eyes back onto Arin. “They think that my turning Suzy was a mistake. Or they think that my letting you see them was a mistake. I don’t know what it is that they’re going to do now.”

Arin bit his lip, looking at Suzy. “How long is this going to take?” 

Ani blinked for a moment, taking Suzy’s hand. “Not long. When I turn people, they turn fast.”

“Does she dream at all? Is she just…dead?” Arin asked timidly. 

“She’s dreaming. We can watch them if you want. We can go into her dreams.”

Arin took a deep breath. “I don’t know. I want her to rest.”

Ani nodded, closing her eyes. “Good night, Arin.”

\---

Suzy opened her eyes to darkness, looking around her as of yet blank dreamstate. THe darkness shivered, ribbons of dark forest green permeating throughout the darkness again. She took a deep breath as the green formed a trail on the ground below her, leading her through the darkness. As she walked through it, images flickered in and out along the path, like an art museum in flux. 

The first couple images were strange and fantastical-a blue skinned giant carrying a pale, wisp of a redheaded woman in his arms; a regal man with pointed ears helping a toddler walk along a garden path; a young woman in a pearl lined flapper dress diving out of the way of incoming tommy gun fire. 

Suzy watched image after image with a strange fascination. She caught small appearances of features that she recognized in Ani’s own-the curve of an eyebrow, the shade of black hair, the shape of her lips. 

Then the images stopped, and Suzy reached the end of the trail. A man with slick black hair stood with his back to her. He was as tall as Arin, and his clothes consisted of some black and green material Suzy couldn’t discern. It looked like a nightmare to put on-so many straps and strange plating.

The black haired man turned towards her, and his face consisted of naught but smoke, a roiling cloud of grey smoke.

“Do you know where I am?” She asked.

The figure said nothing, turning to pick up a cup of something. The figure offered the cup to Suzy without a word. She held the suspiciously red liquid in her hands, looking back up at the figure. 

A smooth voice echoed around her, and it had to come from the figure. “Take a moment to decide. And once you have, drink.”

Before she could ask, the figure disappeared, leaving Suzy standing in the middle of the darkness with the glass of red fluid.

\---

Ani woke up during the night, the soft velvety voice of someone calling her name. She sat up, looking down at the bed. Suzy was still asleep, but Arin was suspiciously missing. Ani stood up, walking into the main living room. Arin was standing at the window, staring out into the city as a storm thundered down around Los Angeles. 

“Arin, what are you-”

“What are the three questions?”

His question gave her pause. “You remember that?”

“Barely. I saw it in my dreams, for a minute. Just, like...the scene of it all. Some details were fuzzy.”

Ani walked to stand next to Arin. “They were...troubling questions. Questions I don’t like to think about.”

He turned to her. “Is that version of me...with the jewelry and the clothes and the body paint…”

“I think it might be the way your magic is manifesting. You might still see it as a separate part of you.”

“If...if I give in to the magic I have...am I going to turn into that version of myself?” Arin asked.

She bit her lip. “Do you want to be that version of yourself?”

He sighed. “I don’t...I don’t know. It’s all just too much to think about.” Arin paused, looking back at Ani. “That version of me said you had a week to answer those questions. It’s been three months.”

Ani shrugged. “I know the answers to the questions. I guess that was enough.” She paused. “That version of you is...striking.”

Arin looked back at her. “Suzy does make me look good in eyeliner. It’s basically a gerudo outfit.”

“But more revealing. I am going to make both outfits for you, just give me time. You guys keep the edit jobs coming quick.”

Arin laughed softly. He was relieved that they could slide back into such an easy rhythm with each other, the tension gone from both of them. 

Ani peered back into the bedroom. “She’ll be awake soon.”

“Is she going to be hungry?” Arin asked. 

“Well, yeah.” She walked back into the bedroom, sitting next to the bed. Arin followed her in, sitting next to her. She paused, looking at Arin. He had been absentmindedly rubbing the front of his neck.

“Do you want yours to be the first blood she drinks?”

\---

Suzy blinked, finally waking up. She took a deep breath, and was immediately overwhelmed by all of it. She could hear a TV two apartments over, the sound in the other apartments filtering to her and reaching her. The smells of her apartment, once comforting were now too much-their laundry, her own perfume and makeup, the cats. Then something else came to her.

Arin met her eyes. “Oh god, Suzy.” He stood up and moved to the bed, sitting down on the mattress across from her. He reached out to touch her cheek. Her skin was cold, icy almost. 

Suzy shuddered at his warmth, closing her eyes. “Arin.” She whispered, holding his hand against her cheek. “Arin, it’s too much.”

“Your senses?” He whispered. 

She nodded, taking a deep breath. “It’s so much of you. You’re kind of overwhelming me all over again.” She moved towards him, wrapping her arms around his neck as she hugged him. 

Arin waited, wrapping his arms around her. Then he felt the soft sharpness of fangs sinking into his neck, and he shivered, rubbing Suzy’s back. 

And he fell in love with her all over again.


	6. Ow My Heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which I go full Game of Thrones on everyone in the last paragraph.

“You taste like home.” Suzy murmured.

Arin blinked, looking down at Suzy. Ani had decided to give them some space, and as such, Suzy and Arin were sleeping in their bed by themselves. “How do you mean?” He asked.

“It’s like...you’re blood doesn’t taste like blood. It tastes like the smells and the feelings I get from thinking of home.” She shrugged. 

“How do you feel?” Arin asked. “With, being like this. Being a vampire.” 

Suzy sighed, laying down and looking up at the ceiling. “I feel...clean. I don’t know, I just feel like I’ve been detoxed completely. Like Los Angeles before the smog came to it all.” Arin nodded to himself, biting his lip.

Suzy looked at her hands. “I...I don’t know how we’re going to handle this. I mean, I won’t be able to go to events anymore, I can’t go to anymore cons. It’s just…”

“Hey, hey, it’ll be okay. We’ll talk to Ani tomorrow and figure this out, okay?”

\---

Ani was sleeping.

Ani hoped that she was dreaming. Eric had warned her before that if she ever turned anyone into a vampire, that she would feel their pain intensely, would feel if they were in danger. She scoffed at that idea-she hadn’t felt it with the first being she turned, but Eric insisted that this was because she kept him safe.

But she felt it that night.

A sharp, stabbing pain lit up along her spine, and she gasped awake, sitting up. She held a hand to her heart, tears streaming freely down her cheeks.

Suzy.

She stood, and ran to Arin and Suzy’s bedroom. She saw that Suzy was alright, and sleeping peacefully, disquieting Ani considerably.

\---

“Eric?”  
“Ah, hello Ani. It’s been sometime since you called me. How is LA?”

“LA is going well, great even.”  
“What is it?” 

“After any of your progeny died, did you ever....feel their pain?”

“No, any connection to my progeny ended when they did...why?”

“I turned someone recently, and I felt a pain again. But...it wasn’t from them.”

“Ani...you don’t think that…”

“No, it couldn’t be Loki. I watched him die.”

“I believe you, but...the alternate universes.”   


“...”

“He might have…”

“No. Dead is dead is dead. No matter the universe.”

\---

Pitch and Darkiplier sat in Pitch’s throne room, staring at the pale, pale man lying motionless on the floor. “My devils, I can’t believe it worked.” Pitch murmured.

“You have so little faith in the old enchantments, Pitch.” Dark grinned, walking over to the pale man, kicking him in the back. The man groaned in pain, curling in on himself. “He’s barely alive, but alive enough for our purposes.”

Pitch walked to the other side of the pale man, crouching down to get a look at his face. The pale man opened his eyes, blinking and looking around the room. “Where, Ani…”

“Welcome to the kingdom of nightmares, son of Laufey.”

The pale man shook his head. “My name is Loki.” He unsheathed a dagger, holding it out and standing up. His leather armor was torn and tattered slightly, a thin layer of grime coating his forehead “Where is Ani?”

“Oh, we’ll take you to her.” Dark grinned. “But drop the dagger first.”

To his shock, Loki dropped the dagger. Dark picked it up, twirling it in his hands before Loki lunged toward him to take the dagger back. Dark reached his hand toward Loki, his hand phasing through Loki’s chest. 

Loki gave a small gasp, shaking with a cold he hadn’t felt in years. He stared in horror as Dark pulled his heart out of his chest. Loki fell to his knees, holding his hands over the hole in his chest. Dark murmured an archaic incantation, and the hold in Loki’s chest sealed up. 

Dark held the heart in his hand, the quickly pulsing organ warm and icy at once in his hands. “Stand up.” Dark commanded. 

Loki stood like a marionette, a single tear escaping down his cheek as he realized his fate.


End file.
